Risk Management

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Risk Assessment and Risk Management Glynis
Yates Rebecca
Smith
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Keeping it in Perspective

• being alive is dangerous. There is risk even
  when we are in bed asleep. But from the moment we
  wake up the risk increases.
• In Britain alone, 20 people are electrocuted
  every year by their bedside light or alarm clock
  20 are killed falling over as they get out of
  bed 30 drown in the bath 60 are seriously
  injured even just putting on their socks 600
  (nearly 2 per day) die from falling down stairs.
• If we try to make the world perfectly safe we
  have to remove baths and socks and stairs. It
  would be impossible. Zero risk is not a
  meaningful option, because zero in this case can
  only be obtained by not doing anything at all.
  And imagining the world could be perfectly safe
  is not only impossible, it could be
  dangerous.
• (Gerald Wilde C4 TV 1999)

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Sensible risk management IS about

• Ensuring that workers and citizens are properly
  protected
• Providing overall benefit to society by balancing
  benefits and risks, with a focus on controlling
  real risks - either those which arise most often
  or those with the most serious consequences
• Enabling innovation and learning not stifling
  them

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Continued

• Ensuring that those who create risks manage them
  responsibly and understand that failure to manage
  serious risks responsibly is likely to lead to
  robust action
• Enabling individuals to understand that as well
  as the right to protection, they also have to
  exercise responsibility
• 
  
• HSE June 2006

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Sensible risk management IS NOT about

• Creating a totally risk free society
• Generating useless paperwork mountains
• Scaring people by exaggerating or publicising
  trivial risks
• Stopping important recreational and learning
  activities for individuals where the risks are
  managed
• HSE June 2006

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You can't take the risk!

• Yes you can, and you do, every day. We all take
  risks. Walking down stairs, crossing a road,
  driving, cooking.
• We manage these risks by using our judgement, and
  by following guidance where necessary.
• A risk assessment is simply a record that people
  have considered the risks and prepared for them.

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Risk Assessments must always be long and
complex!

• The reality
• On its own, paperwork never saved anyone. It
  is a means to an end, not an end to itself
  action is what protects people.
• So risk assessments should be fit for purpose
  and acted upon
• HSEs Myth of the Month May 2007

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Required levels of risk assessment

• generic - LA/employer/establishment

• specific the place/the group/the activities

• ongoing

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The system should

• identify significant hazards and the risk
  associated with them
• put control measures in place
• check if anything else is needed
• use a simple assessment language
• high / medium / low
• or acceptable/unacceptable

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Risk assessment must be

• simple

• manageable

• proportional

• suitable

• remember, RA is a process, what you do is
  more important.

You should have a clear system of support
documents
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 It's just a load of useless paperwork !

• It shouldn't be. Risk assessments should be
  simple, setting out the risks and detailing how
  each one will be managed.
• Note not eliminated, managed. Do not attempt to
  list every single activity the children might
  conceivably do, from getting on the 'bus, to
  eating lunch in the park. Most of it can be
  covered by a single sentence, such as
• 'The children will be properly supervised at
  all times'.
• Schools keep generic risk assessments for common
  activities e.g. a walk down the high street, a
  minibus journey and allow individual teachers to
  adapt them as necessary.
• And no, a teacher does not have to write a new
  one on every occasion, but does need to review it
  and make it relevant to each visit!

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Active Risk Management

• Generic, activity or site specific and ongoing
• Must involve young people
• Produce operating procedures/protocols that
  manage rather than eliminate risks
• Leaders must have appropriate training and
  experience and should feel confident in using
  their judgement
• Be flexible in the format

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Involving young people in risk assessment

• it is part of safety education

• it supports supervision decisions

• it is an essential part of visits and journeys
• education

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Make sure they understand you!
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Reducing the Risks
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Reducing the Risks

• Appoint experienced and competent leaders
• Substitute actual high risk for perceived risk
• Use alternative method
• Separate people from the risk
• Reduce the period of exposure to the risk
• Increase training and qualification of leaders
• Specify higher competence level of participants
• Apply stricter supervision ratios
• Improve your briefings
• Provide PPE
• Discontinue the activity

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Managing Risk Sensibly Reasonably
Practicable Foreseeable Suitable and
Sufficient Focus on Significant Hazards Duty of
Care Not Life Risks Simple Efficient Cost
Effective Good Practice Common Sense
Ive been doing this for twenty years without a
hitch Someone else should do this
Its not worth the risk Where do you
stop? You have to risk assess everything
Apathy
Paranoia
No consideration
Overkill
Weve done the best we can We can always
review and improve this
Paul Airey 2004
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Top Tips

• Think of risk assessments as the minutes of the
  meeting where issues regarding safety were raised
  and discussed
• It is the discussion and sharing of ideas,
  experience and knowledge which will enhance
  safety and reduce risk not the piece of paper
• Keep it proportional
• Include yourself in who might be harmed

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Top Tips

• Use Generic Risk Assessments carefully- It may be
  best to write your specific R/A from scratch,
  then use the generic to check if youve left
  anything major out
• Dont let your Risk Assessments become static
  review them after every visit
• Use other peoples accidents as a near miss for
  your groups and revisit your risk assessments
  anything to change or add?

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Top Tips

• There is no right way to do Risk Assessments. A
  dozen different RAs could be done for one
  activity and they could all be equally valid
• Most accidents occur on the activities that were
  considered to be the lowest risk
• Its not what you write which drives safety, its
  what you do. Merely writing a risk assessment
  will not protect people from harm. It is the
  operating procedure that comes out of RA that is
  important.
• Thanks to Marcus Bailie of AALA for these last 3

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